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History tours: Third Reich, WW2WW2 category: Battle of Stalingrad 1942, 1943 :: Latest WWII news reviews. See also 'Soviet Tanks', 'WWII, Nazi Uniforms', 'Kursk: Panzer battle', 'Siege of Leningrad', 'Wehrmacht', 'Soviet Red Army'.
How could the Germans have won the Battle of Stalingrad - thread at Axis History Forum forum.axishistory.com :: 2008-08-17
Axis History Forum has an interesting discussion about the German chances of winning the Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943, and completing the Operation Blue (Fall Blau) successfully.
Red Army Master Sergeant Peter Gitelman took part in the Battle of Stalingrad montrealgazette :: 2008-03-30
Peter Gitelman was a Red Army Master Sergeant who participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and who was decorated for bravery following the bloody Russian offensive against the Germans that took over one million lives during the winter of 1942-1943. He came to Canada as a refugee in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When Stalingrad was attacked, Gitelman was sent to work in military field hospital #833. "He would always say that Stalingrad was a good experience for him because it was there where he met his wife, Elena Gritsenko, who was a nurse working in the same field hospital."
Volga road trip: Stalingrad - The titanic battle bbc :: 2008-02-13
Stalingrad. It is a name that echoes through the history of the 20th Century. Today they call it Volgograd, but to me it will always be Stalingrad. Not because I like the Soviet dictator, but because of the huge battle that bears the city's name. In Britain we learn about Dunkirk. Americans learn about Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima, but (with all due respect) they were sideshows compared to the battle of Stalingrad. During the winter of 1942 Stalingrad became a meat grinder that took almost 2 million lives. It was a vicious struggle with shocking cruelty on both sides... Down on the bank of the Volga, there is one whole building left as it was at the end of the battle.
Russia remembers carnage of the Battle of Stalingrad abc.net.au :: 2008-02-02
Thousands are gathering to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of one of the most important battles of World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad saw over 2 million Soviet and German soldiers desperately fighting for 6 months. The name Stalingrad may have vanished off the maps and been substituted by Volgograd, but it has been seared into the history books and into the memories. For both armies, the city meant much: The Germans considered Stalingrad as a key to the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus. For the Soviets, it was about saving their nation from the advancing Germans. As Joseph Stalin ordered the Russian troops: "not a step backwards".
World War II Turning Point - Stalingrad and the 6th Army dailynews :: 2007-11-21
The war opened dazzlingly for the Teutonic warriors. Punching huge gaps in the Russian defense lines the Panzer divisions of the Germans streaked across the Russian plains leaving the mopping up to the infantry divisions. But after the winter battles of 1941, when Russians launched a counter punch, Germans were not in a position to again attack on all 3 fronts. After consideration they picked on the economically vital Southern Front. For the gigantic attack of 1942 the Army Group South was reorganized with Field Marshall Von Bock in charge. Under his command were several armies including the 2nd army, 17th army, the 6th army, the 1st Panzer army and the 4th Panzer army.
Stalingrad - The beginning of the end for Nazi Germany timesonline :: 2007-11-10 :: Battle of Stalingrad 1942, 1943
Strolling through the squares of Volgograd, it is easy to forget that this is a city drenched in blood. The former Stalingrad is filled with reminders of the battle that marked the beginning of the end for Third Reich. The name Stalingrad evokes the horror of a clash that cost 2 million lives in the winter of 1942-1943. On the steppe beyond the city, Russians are still burying the dead 65 years later. After humiliating defeats by the Nazi invaders, Stalingrad was the turning point that led to the Soviet Union’s victory, at the price of 26 million dead. I had reread Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad, but seeing the landmarks brought home the scale of the struggle.
The Ghost Army: Journalist Andy Gallagher writes book on Stalingrad register-herald :: 2007-05-21
"The Ghost Army" by Andy Gallagher zeroes in on the Eastern Front battle of Stalingrad. "...the more I read, the more I realized the real warfare of World War II was fought on the Eastern Front, a struggle of pitiless savagery. And as I read more, I realized the battle of Stalingrad was such a horrible disaster, no matter how much you might hate the Nazis, nobody should have to die like the members of the 6th Army." With a quarter of a million men (6th Army was beefed up with 500 battle tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars) under his command General Friedrich Paulus advanced on Stalingrad, defended by General Georgi Zhukov.
On Feb. 2, 1943 - Russians Liquidate Last Stalingrad Pocket - :: 2007-03-24
On Feb. 2, 1943: The Red Army has completed the destruction of 330,000 trapped troops at Stalingrad, the flower of Adolf Hitler's army, Moscow announced. This raised the Russians' announced toll of Axis casualties on the Volga to more than 500,000. 91,000 troops, including field marshal General Friedrich Paulus and 23 generals had surrendered in the last 3 weeks. The Soviet bulletin said "trophies are still being counted in one of the biggest battles in the history of wars," but listed this booty as captured: 1,150 tanks, 6,700 guns, 1,462 mortars, 8,135 machine guns, 90,000 rifles, 61,102 trucks, 3 armored trains and a large amount of other equipment.
Exhibition of Emmanuil Yevzerikhin: Stalingrad Battle photographer russia-ic :: 2007-03-07
The Russian Museum has opened the exhibition of the Soviet photographer Emmanuil Yevzerikhin. Over 400 works made in the 1930-70s and now belonging to a private collector can be seen at the exhibition held in Mramorny Palace of the Russian Museum. The majority of the photos are dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. He as a war reporter was at many front lines all throughout the war, and became famous as "the major photographer" of the Stalingrad Battle.
Out of the ruins of Stalingrad - Life and Fate guardian :: 2006-03-26 :: Reporters and Photographers
Through the winter of 1942-43, Vasily Grossman reported from the craters and cellars of the Stalingrad front line as the besieged Russians turned the tide and encircled Hitler's forces. His writings made him a national icon. After the German surrender, Grossman rode west with the Red Army, providing the first and most authoritative eyewitness report from Treblinka. In May 1945 Grossman was at the Brandenburg Gate as Berlin fell. In Hitler's bunker he pocketed stationery from the Führer's own desk for souvenirs.
Russia's Top Female Fighter Ace With 12 Luftwaffe kills flightsim :: 2006-03-17 :: Female Pilots of WWII
Lily Litvak is the most famous female fighter pilot of all time. Stunningly beautiful with blonde hair and gorgeous grey eyes, Lily was known as the White Rose of Stalingrad. With 12 Luftwaffe kills to her credit, she was the Soviet Union's top female ace fighter pilot. In September, 1942 flying a Yak-1 with white roses painted on both sides of her cockpit, Lily shot down a Junkers JU-88 and a Messerschmitt Bf-109 during her second combat mission while flying with the 296th IAP. The day of her final mission, Lily had already flown 4 previous sorties. She was escorting a flight of Soviet bombers when her Yak was jumped by a flight of 8 Bf-109s.
19 Feb 1943: Germans surrender at Stalingrad bbc :: 2006-03-02 :: Battle of Stalingrad 1942, 1943
The Soviet Government has announced the final defeat of the German 6th Army at the port of Stalingrad. A statement said: Our forces have now completed the liquidation of the German Fascist troops encircled in the area of Stalingrad. The battle has been described as among the most terrible of the war so far. The 6th Army has been trapped inside the city, completely surrounded by the Red Army, for almost 3 months during the harshest part of the Russian winter. They have had to rely totally on air drops by the Luftwaffe for food.
A new book of Grossman’s war writings newyorker :: 2006-02-27
In 1941 the war came. Like many others, Grossman rushed to volunteer for the front... A new book of Grossman’s war writings—a collection taken from his notebooks and his published pieces has appeared in English as "A Writer at War", translated by Antony Beevor. Halted outside Moscow in December, the Germans resumed their offensive in the south as soon as the snow melted. The Red Army reeled again until it reached the very edge of European Russia, at a large industrial city on the Volga that had been renamed Stalingrad. When Grossman arrived, the city had already been laid waste by the same Luftwaffe commander who, during the Spanish Civil War, had bombed Guernica.
Volgograd Jewish Community Honors Veterans of Stalingrad Battle fjc :: 2006-02-19
The Jewish Community Center of Volgograd welcomed veterans of World War Two for a gathering honoring those who participated in the Stalingrad Battle. The 63rd anniversary of the city's liberation was marked by all citizens of Volgograd. Rabbi Zalman Yoffe expressed thanks to the veterans and recited Kaddish for those who died in this historic battle, considered a turning point in the war against Nazi forces. Officials from the City Administration and Cossacks Affairs extended congratulations. The senior citizens also sang songs from their youth and recalled the most significant episodes of the war.
August-September 1943: Tokyo tried to reconcile Stalin with Hitler RIA Novosti :: 2005-09-07
Several years ago the U.S. National Archives published correspondence between the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin, Hiroshi Oshima, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry. From this correspondence, it transpired that after the defeat of the German armies in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the Japanese government had tried to act as an intermediary for Moscow and Berlin. Tokyo made several attempts to arrange separate talks on the cessation of hostilities on the Soviet-German front.
Memories of Stalingrad - As a soldier of General Paulus's 6th army guardian :: 2003-03-04
As a soldier of General Paulus's 6th army who fought at Stalingrad, I fully agree with Geoffrey Roberts' claim (Victory on the Volga, February 28) that the main reason for the German onslaught towards the Volga, which culminated in the battle for Stalingrad, was to open the gates for grabbing the rich Causcasian, Caspian and later the Iraqi oilfields. Soviet heroism and sacrifices under the necessarily harsh leadership of Josef Stalin were tremendous. Nine out of 10 of my comrades who died during the second world war died at the eastern front.
Victory on the Volga - The anniversary of Stalingrad guardian :: 2003-02-28
60 years ago the greatest battle of the WW2 reached its climax. The site of that decisive battle was not the windswept sands of north Africa beloved of British war mythology, nor the broad expanses of the Pacific favoured in the American version, but the debris of a devastated city on the Volga. The German surrender at Stalingrad in February 1943 was the strategic turning point of the second world war. After Stalingrad, Hitler had no hope of winning on the eastern front and that meant inevitable defeat in the wider conflict.
Bitter memories of Stalingrad - Private in the Red Army bbc :: 2003-02-03
Russia is marking the 60th anniversary of the battle which was one of the turning points of WWII. Soviet troops forced an elite German army to surrender at Stalingrad. Two million soldiers endured hand-to-hand fighting, carpet bombs, frostbite and starvation for more than six months. It was one of the longest battles in military history. Mikhail Morkovkin is now 79 and still lives in Volgograd. He was a private in the Red Army and still cannot forget what it was like. "We were scared to death, the earth was shaking and everything was burning," he said. "I raised my head from the ground and saw a wall of bullets flying towards me."
Red Army veterans battle to bring back glorious name of Stalingrad guardian :: 2002-12-02
It was the scene of the greatest battle of the Second World War, where the Nazi war machine began to crumble and at least two million men lost their lives. The jewel of the Soviet industrial empire, to which Hitler laid siege in 1942, it has been immortalised in epic books, movies, and a square in Paris. And now the town of Volgograd, still considered a monument to Russian bravery and sacrifice, wants again to be named after the dictator Josef Stalin. A change would give the town, which was defended by the Soviet Army to the cost of 1.3 million soldiers, its fourth name in a century.
See also:
'Soviet Tanks'
'WWII, Nazi Uniforms'
'Kursk: Panzer battle'
'Siege of Leningrad'
'Wehrmacht'
'Soviet Red Army'.